“I see what you did there.” She laughed. “You just blocked me out of your entire summer.”
“Yeah. Well, this guy doesn’t leave much room for anyone else, does he? But anytime you guys want to take me out for a steak dinner—”
“Never.” I thumped the roof of his Mini Cooper. “I’m never getting into this sardine can on wheels again.”
“Hey. Take it easy, mate.” His voice rose a few octaves before he drove off.
“Sorry,” I said, as Rodel linked her arm through mine and we walked into the house. “I didn’t mean to leave a dent. Everything is so small around here. The homes, the streets, the cars. I’m used to wide open spaces, not bumping into dainty little things every time I turn around. I feel like a lion in a cag—”
“How could you?” She grabbed my collar and yanked me closer. “You show up unannounced, crash my date, and sit there, eating steak, while a million questions are swirling in my head.”
Her lips were so close, I had to focus really, really hard on what she was saying.
“Rodel.” My eyes swept over the delicately carved bones of her face. “I’ve thought about you every day for the last ten months. You think I didn’t want to shut the world out the moment you opened the door? I was getting out of the taxi when some guy walked up to your place. I’d considered a lot of scenarios. I got on that plane knowing that things might have changed for you. It didn’t stop me though. I had to see for myself. I had to know. But I wasn’t prepared for it. When I saw that guy knocking on your door, I lost it. He could have been anyone. He could have been a stranger, a neighbor, a salesman. But in my head, he was holding you, kissing you, living the part I wanted to live.
“I wanted to punch him, Rodel. I wanted to pound the shit out of him. Then he left. And I still wanted to punch him, for blocking you out of my sight. I took a few minutes to steady myself. I had no right to be jealous. Whatever happened when I saw you—if you had someone in your life, if you didn’t—it didn’t matter. What we had was real. And I wasn’t going back without saying the things I wanted to say to you.
“The second you opened the door, I knew—I knew you were still mine. So when that other guy showed up, I saw no point in ruining your plans. It’s like when you open a bottle of fine wine. You don’t just gulp it down. You take a moment to let it breathe. That’s what dinner was about, Rodel. Letting us breathe. Because seeing you again went straight to my head. And right now, all I want to do is this . . .” My mouth swooped down and captured hers.
The taste of her was an anomaly I’d yearned for—sweet and wicked and gut-twistingly sexy, all rolled up in one. God, I’d missed her soft little mouth. I gathered her closer and deepened the kiss. How was it possible for anyone to feel like this? Like heaven in your arms?
“Remember what I told you?” Her hands snaked around my back.
“Baby, I can’t even remember my name right now.” I nuzzled her neck, losing myself in the scent of her hair.
“I said—” she grabbed a fistful of my hair and tugged my head back, “—if you’re ever in England, I’m claiming this.” She squeezed my ass, hard enough that she caught me off guard. “And this.” She ran her tongue over my lips. “And this.” She went where she absolutely should not have gone. All of my restraint left me.
“It’s like that, huh?” I growled, scooping her up into my arms. “In that case, let’s get you somewhere you can stake your claim properly.”
My intention was to carry her upstairs, but there was no way we were getting up there like that. Not on those stairs. I hit my head on the slanted ceiling and ended up shifting her in my arms, which ended up scraping her knee against the wall.
“Fucking small spaces.” I let her down slowly, relishing the feel of her curves against me. “Are you okay?” I rubbed my head while she grinned.
“Come on.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me behind her.
Oh God, that ass.
Her room was exactly like I’d imagined. Cozy and comfortable. Books, pictures, muted walls, wild lavender in a vase on her dresser.
“What’s this?” I picked up the paperback on her bed and opened it to the bookmark.
“Give me that.” She tried to snatch it from me, but I held it away from her as I scanned the page.
“This is some sexy shit, Rodel.” I started reading the scene out loud while she smacked me with her pillow. I held the book with one hand and fended her attacks with the other.
“Stop it!” She was breathing hard, both from the laughter and the flush of her one-sided fluffy combat. She was so beautiful, I stopped just so I could look at her.
“This is what passes for bedtime reading, huh?”
She tugged the book from my grasp and slid it under the bed. She was lying on top of me, her stomach moving in and out with the rise and fall of her lungs.
“I’ve missed you.” She traced the lines of my face, her hair falling like a curtain around me. “You’re like the broken chapter of my favorite story.”
Something fierce trembled inside of me as I tucked one side of her hair behind her ear. How could I explain to her the hunger, the craving, the obsession? The small, sharp memories of her, always at the edge of my brain? I couldn’t. So I kissed her. With all the words I couldn’t form. My arms locked around her and she melted into me like a sigh.